Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Starship Troopers: One of the Most Misunderstood Movies Ever
The Atlantic ^ | November 7, 2013 | Calum Marsh

Posted on 11/09/2013 1:46:38 PM PST by EveningStar

When Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers hit theaters 16 years ago today, most American critics slammed it. In the New York Times, Janet Maslin panned the “crazed, lurid spectacle,” as featuring “raunchiness tailor-made for teen-age boys.” Jeff Vice, in the Deseret News, called it “a nonstop splatterfest so devoid of taste and logic that it makes even the most brainless summer blockbuster look intelligent.” Roger Ebert, who had praised the “pointed social satire” of Verhoeven’s Robocop, found the film “one-dimensional,” a trivial nothing “pitched at 11-year-old science-fiction fans.”

But those critics had missed the point. Starship Troopers is satire, a ruthlessly funny and keenly self-aware sendup of right-wing militarism. The fact that it was and continues to be taken at face value speaks to the very vapidity the movie skewers.

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Military/Veterans; Society; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: scifi; starshiptroopers
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 141-160 next last
To: max americana
Then you should watch part 2 and especially, number 3 (it’s a trilogy). The third part gist? The actual but subtle notion that Christianity is the solution vs the bugs, I kid you not.

By the end of the book, the humuns have the Nova Bomb, described as "being able to split a planet in half."

We win.

41 posted on 11/09/2013 2:34:18 PM PST by Kip Russell (Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors -- and miss. ---Robert A. Heinlein)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: EveningStar

These Leftists must have never read the actual book. The backstory of why the society in the book is based on a prerequisite of military service to vote is Heinlein’s correct assumption that a society that can vote itself benefits without personal cost will collapse.

We’re seeing that now in our own country as we’ve now reached the tipping point where a majority of “citizens” are takers. Where can that lead except to an ever quickening downward spiral.


42 posted on 11/09/2013 2:35:53 PM PST by Flick Lives (The U.S. is dead to me.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RichInOC

The travesty in that movie was that Denise wasn’t nekkid but flat-chested Dina was.


43 posted on 11/09/2013 2:37:28 PM PST by fieldmarshaldj (Resist We Much)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: central_va

With regard to this half witted critic who wrote the article, does he really think the citizenship gig was not going on in leftist military ? I say more so. Perhaps you have a point there. The leftist military are much worse with regards to what the critic thought the movie was criticizing.


44 posted on 11/09/2013 2:37:46 PM PST by justa-hairyape (The user name is sarcastic. Although at times it may not appear that way.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: cripplecreek

I’ve read Foward’s better known fiction (Dragon’s Egg, Starquake, Rocheworld) and enjoyed it very much.


45 posted on 11/09/2013 2:38:30 PM PST by Kip Russell (Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors -- and miss. ---Robert A. Heinlein)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: JoeProBono

That’s the version I have although its wearing out.


46 posted on 11/09/2013 2:39:52 PM PST by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: fieldmarshaldj
The travesty in that movie was that Denise wasn’t nekkid but flat-chested Dina was.

If we're going to discuss physiology, I much prefer OEM to "bolt ons," Big fan of Dina Meyer here!

Mark

47 posted on 11/09/2013 2:42:17 PM PST by MarkL (Do I really look like a guy with a plan?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: max americana

Not to mention that The Natural’s ending was changed and changed the movie’s message.

The book Starship Troopers was superb. The movie was a show piece for Denise Richards and Casper Van Dien and special effects. and Doogie Howser as a SS type was unintenionally hilarious.


48 posted on 11/09/2013 2:43:19 PM PST by whitedog57 ( Cy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: EveningStar; Perdogg

I’ve always wanted to read this book. But, I never have the time.
Any suggestions for a good audiobook format for it? The one (The ONLY one) on iTunes has some VERY bad ratings.

Oh, and thanks for the ping, Perdogg.
Hope your weekend is going well.


49 posted on 11/09/2013 2:44:08 PM PST by RandallFlagg (IRS = Internal Revenge Service)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kip Russell

Saturn Rukh begins with the sentences of “I’ve got a job for you. It pays a billion.” It was about a mission to Saturn to test the viability of mining the Saturnian atmosphere.

He gets pretty technical in the book.


50 posted on 11/09/2013 2:55:13 PM PST by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: MarkL

They make have been fake, but they were spectacular !


51 posted on 11/09/2013 2:58:17 PM PST by fieldmarshaldj (Resist We Much)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies]

To: EveningStar
So many things were wrong with the movie. It was the first book I read which discussed the responsibility of the individual to the state and of the state to the individual. Verhoeven turned that completely on its head.

Then the military tactics.... shudder. He took the Mobile Infantry which typically covered a front line with one man per kilometer and bunched them up so much that a sergeant at Verdun would have told them to spread out a bit. And the space combat was even worse. You have tens of thousands of miles in three dimensions around a planet, but the spaceships were packed in like it was a valet parking lot in New York. When I saw it I said "In space, no one can hear you parallel park."

52 posted on 11/09/2013 2:58:19 PM PST by KarlInOhio (Everyone get online for Obamacare on 10/1. Overload the system and crash it hard!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: driftdiver

I’ve worn out three copies, not including one I dropped in the tub when I fell asleep.


53 posted on 11/09/2013 2:58:40 PM PST by Tijeras_Slim
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: whitedog57

I bet Doogie kept the SS uniform for when he plays hide the bratwurst with his boyfriends.


54 posted on 11/09/2013 2:59:30 PM PST by fieldmarshaldj (Resist We Much)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: KarlInOhio
When I saw it I said "In space, no one can hear you parallel park."

For some reason, that's way funny.

55 posted on 11/09/2013 3:00:19 PM PST by Tijeras_Slim
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]

To: USNBandit

Been a LONG time since I read the book, but IIRC the enemy wielded weapons — and wasn’t just charging monsters.


56 posted on 11/09/2013 3:01:57 PM PST by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: RichInOC
On the other hand, Neil Patrick Harris in that uniform...how’s it that it took me ten years after that flick came out, about the time Neil came out, to hear the nickname “Doogie Himmler”?

LOL!

They did Nazi that movie up, didn't they? Field grey everywhere, M43- resembling caps, black leather trench coats...

I guess the left had to attack the book. If the concept of 'no skin in the game, no calling the shots' ever took hold in a real way, the Democrat ideal of parental-statism would collapse like, tomorrow.

57 posted on 11/09/2013 3:04:26 PM PST by Riley (The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: bigheadfred
“the book is always better than the movie.”

Only one exception that I can think of - Forrest Gump.

58 posted on 11/09/2013 3:22:51 PM PST by CrazyIvan (Obama phones= Bread and circuits.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Diana in Wisconsin

The critics do have a bit of a point regarding Heinlein’s adolescent bent.

I can remember as a teenager, being absolutely enthralled by Heinlein’s “women.” Only later did I learn his “women” bear as much resemblance to real women as do porn actresses.


59 posted on 11/09/2013 3:23:20 PM PST by papertyger ("refusing to draw an inescapable conclusion does not qualify as a 'difference of opinion.'")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: max americana

I have all three movies. I never picked that up in the third. I’ll have to re-watch (if I can bear the CGI, haha)


60 posted on 11/09/2013 3:28:56 PM PST by Viennacon
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 141-160 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson